212 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAJT INSTITUTE. 



stone, laid in Yime mortar, using extra care. If the ground is sufficiently 

 clayey not to cave, then plaster upon the bare earth. The water will come in 

 of course, and if it comes very fast, it may be necessary to keep it pumped 

 out til! the plastering sets — say from three to six hours. Then let the 

 cistern fdl and everything- rest for a few days. The plastering will be 

 hard. Pump out and plaster again so that the two coats will make every- 

 thing secure except where the springs prevent. Keep pumping the water 

 out f(jr a few hours till the mortar sets; then lot the cistern fill. Rest a 

 few da3'S. Don't pump out the water then, but sprinkle or sift into the 

 water from a peck to two bushels of dry water-lime over the bottom of the 

 cistern, and especially over the leak-holes. The lime will settle and 

 cement every hole effectually. Rest a week and pump out the water. If 

 the spring holes are in the sides, build up some kind of staging of material 

 that will not float. Let the cistern fill. Then sprinkle in the water-lime so 

 that it will settle on the top of the staging opposite the spring-holes. A 

 piece of sheet iron may be laid over the hole, and at a little distance from 

 it, and held there by a crowbar; and after the cistern fills, the water-lime 

 may be introduced so as to settle behind the sheet iron and cement the 

 leak. 



An Improved Cultivator. 



Mr. Ephraim Briggs, Medina, Ohio, sends us a cut of an improved culti- 

 vator, which certainly looks to be what he thinks it is, an improvement 

 upon all its predecessors, and in asking such notice as it maybe thought 

 worthy of, he says that he believes " the farming community will be more 

 benefitted by it than I shall, although I am a poor mechanic and not able 

 to employ the necessary means to bring it properly before the public," and 

 he wants to know if it is in accordance with the plans of this Farmers' 

 Club to test new improvements in farm implements, and then, if found 

 worthy, to commend them to others. Such should be one of the objects of 

 every Farmers' Club, and this has frequently been the case here, and as 

 frequentl}', if the article deserved it, it has received a pretty severe con- 

 demnation. Of this improvement Mr. Briggs sa3^s : 



" It has been my study for quite a number of years to get up a cultiva- 

 tor that could be so shifted and changed as to do all the work in the differ- 

 ent stages of the crop with one machine. How well I have succeeded you 

 will, of course, be able to judge after having fairl}'' tested one of my ma- 

 chines." It appears to be made of five teeth, like small shovel plows, so 

 arranged as to make the cultivator wide or narrow at will, and to turn the 

 dirt to or from the rows, and Mr. B. says : " It will do as much and as 

 good work going once as a common mold board plow at twice. Beside 

 cultivating, it has been found an excellent potato digger. The front shovel 

 is about five inches wide, and the hind one about eight. The two outside 

 shovels, when placed together, Avould make a large shovel plow blade, and 

 are all made of steel. The implement weighs about fifty pounds, and the 

 draft is light in proportion to the work that it does. Tiiree of the best far- 

 mers in our country planted their corn with it this 3'car, and say it saved 

 them the labor of at least two hands." 



Adjourned. John W. Chambers, Secretary. 



